So, Ana basically slept all over South Africa

One of the greatest things about traveling with my niece, Analise, is that the girl can sleep absolutely anywhere. Most of the time when we're out and about Ana can be strapped to Megan's back which makes a perfectly good napping place!

When Ana first made the trip over to Africa maybe she was jet lagged:Or, maybe we just wore her out:
She certainly wasn't up for high tea:
And she definitely didn't care much for any of the battlefield tours.
She didn't even wake up to watch hippos walk up the 17^th green at the Hippo Hollow golf course:
She sure didn't care about hiking:
She even slept most of her way through Kruger National Park She did, however manage to wake herself up to see her first Leopard…which is really all that counts!

Three Trees

Our next spot that we stopped at was Three Trees Lodge located on a battlefield of the Boer-Anglo War in Kwa Zulu Natal. There, we relaxed, took some hikes, did a battlefield tour, and even went horse back riding. I was given a beautiful white horse that seemed like a "plodder" in the beginning, but soon taught me that he had an affinity for being back near the stables and also had an affinity for my mother's knee.
The lodge was really nice and beautiful and everyone was extremely accommodating.
They even allowed Megan and me to eat in our room so that we could play with Ana in between courses…and Ana was able to remind us multiple times why we weren't allowed into the dining room!

Fugitive's Drift

Our next adventure led us to Fugitive's Drift where we learned all about the Zulu-Anglo wars. We stayed at a lodge called the Fugitive Drift which was absolutely fantastic. It was, however, the kind of place that's not for kids in the dining room. This fact actually worked out great because Megan and I had a great excuse for eating dinner in our bedroom. This, of course included playing in between meals.
One of the neat thing about staying at Fugitive's Drift were the really neat history tours that we were able to do. We were able to walk all around the battle fields of the Zulu- Anglo war and it was so neat to hear the history from story tellers that were very gifted in telling these histories. I was absolutely taken with the stories, which is saying a lot since I generally tune out of any history lesson.
It was, of course, cold so blankets were worn during the tours, but I feel like that helped us blend into the Zulu landscape. There were also lots of giraffe roaming around the lodge that were really amazing to see.
It was really cool to be going out on a history tour and see giraffes right outside the window. We also got the chance to go visit a waterfall that was right near where the Anglo warriors thought the Zulu warriors were hiding….it was just beautiful!
And you just couldn't beat the scenery.

Helicopter ride in Hazyview

Riding in a helicopter over one of the three biggest canyons in the world was definitely one of our highlights!
We were able to ride up over all of the sights that are around Krueger National park. One fantastic sight was "God's Window" – this is a beautiful view of an amazing area of the canyon. One of the best parts was stopping right on top of a beautiful mountain to drink champagne and eat fruit kabobs!
It's the perfect snack for a mountaintop picnic.

Of course when we got back from our helicopter ride we got to see what Ana had been up to while playing with Grandma.

She was in heaven with a new giraffe backpack strapped to her back and a big waterhole all to herself.

Night Drive at Krueger

We kind of thought it was going to be lame, but we also thought it would be nice to go on a game drive without the baby and have a little time just the two of us. The thing we didn't count on was that it was going to be freezing! After our driver had stopped at about 3 different trees to tell us what kind of tree it was and what kind of animals eat from the tree we found out that our suspicions were true, this was going to be lame.
It was lame until we stumbled upon a Leopard, and then a little bit later we came across this guy:
The Leopard, unfortunately didn't really turn out in the picture, but Megan and I both knew how amazingly lucky we were…two leopards in one day! You can't ask for better than that!

Krueger National Park

I have been on a wonderful blogging sabbatical. Why? You might ask – simple, I would answer, because my family came to visit! We had the most amazing time! It's just too much to write everything that we did, but I will do my best to tell the story in pictures.
We started by heading off to South Africa. We stayed at a beautiful lodge named the Rissington InnThe Rissington Inn is just outside of Krueger National Park – that's where we had a fantastic morning drive.
The park is filled with lots of wildlife just begging for us to find it. I often view game drives as one big game of where's Waldo…you know that animals are in there, you just have to find them.

On this particular morning our game of where's Waldo was particularly easy as there where four cheetahs hunting when we first entered the park.

Then a little while later we came upon a rhino and a slightly angry elephant
(He apparently woke up on the wrong side of the waterhole)

Of course the most amazing part of the day was when we had our first ever Leopard sighting!

I have never seen a Leopard (and they sure work hard at not getting you to see them), but this guy was hiding in the bushes not far away from an unsuspecting group of Impalas.

As game drives go, this was certainly one of the best…and it got even better when later that night Megan and I went on a night drive!